The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) is an assessment of the general public’s opinion and experiences of corruption worldwide[1], most recently in 107 countries in 2013.[2] The Barometer has been published eight times since 2003 by Transparency International.[3] The Barometer measures ordinary citizen’s actual experiences of corruption[4] as opposed to the Corruption Perception Index, which only measures perceptions of how corrupted certain countries are instead of actual cases of corruption.[5]
Findings
In 2013, 53% of the respondents felt that corruption had increased in their country in the past two years, and only 18% said corruption had decreased in their country.[6] On average 27% of the respondents had had to pay a bribe to one of eight services mentioned (police, judiciary, registry, land, medical, education, tax, and utilities) within the last 12 months, which had not changed significantly from 2010/2011.[7] The most corrupt on this scale were police services, with 31% of respondents having paid bribes to them, and the least corrupt being utility services, with only 13% of respondents having paid bribes to them.[8] In 51 countries out of 107, the most corrupt institution from a list of 12 was political parties, whereas police forces ranked number one in only 36 countries.[9]
Finland on the Barometer
In 2013 report, Finnish respondents thought that the level of corruption in Finland had remained the same in the past two years, and only 1% reported having paid a bribe within the last 12 months.[10] Nonetheless, it seems that when it comes to politics, Finns do not trust the country’s leaders’ integrity to the same extent as in other sectors, as 28% of Finnish respondents replied that they believe the government is to a large extent being run by only few big interest groups looking out for themselves. Finnish respondents also ranked political parties as the most corrupt institution in the country.[11] Perhaps due to the low level of corruption in Finland, Finnish respondents are reluctant to take any drastic measures to fight corruption, with signing a petition being the farthest most respondents would be willing to go.[12]
Medical Services on the Barometer
Medical services are one of the eight services whose corruption is measured on the GCB, ranking well below average (27%) on the bribery scale, with only 17% of respondents reporting of paying bribes for medical services.[13] However, the report measures bribes paid by regular citizens, so it does not necessarily give an accurate image of corruption in business transactions within the pharmaceutical industry. The perceptions of corruption within medical and health care services were globally rated at 3.2 on a scale of 1-5, where five is extremely corrupt, and it ranked the 7th out of 12 institutions.[14]
Critique
On a general level nationally-representative surveys of households is a great challenge in many developing countries. The Global Corruption Barometer has been criticized for inadequate sample sizes (only around 1000 respondents per country)[15] and for excluding many important countries, such as China.[16] However, Transparency International is working on increasing the number of countries surveyed and it has already grown to 107 in 2013 from the 47 countries that were polled in the first GCB in 2003.[17] Despite its shortfalls many see the GCB as a complementary alternative to the Corruption Perceptions Index.[18] [1] Lee, S-H. (2010); Comparative Studies on Current Situations of Anti-Corruption and Human Rights in Southern Europe, East Asia and Latin America in Perspective of Soft Power. International Area Review, Volume 13, Number 4, Winter 2010 [2]http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013 [3]http://www.transparency.org/research/gcb/overview [4]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [5]Andersson, S., & Heywood, P. M. (2009). The politics of perception: use and abuse of Transparency International's approach to measuring corruption. Political Studies, 57(4), p. 746-767 [6]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [7]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [8]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [9]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [10]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [11]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [12]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [13]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [14]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International [15]http://www.cgdev.org/blog/corrupting-perceptions-why-transparency-international%E2%80%99s-flagship-corruption-index-falls-short [16]http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/07/10/china-absent-from-global-corruption-report/?mod=WSJBlog [17]http://www.transparency.org/research/gcb/gcb_2003/0/ [18] See for example: Rohwer, A. (2009); Measuring Corruption: A Comparison between the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index And The World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators. CESifo DICE Report 3/2009. CESifo Group Munich.
or http://www.transparency.org/research/gcb/gcb_2003/0/
Definition
The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) is an assessment of the general public’s opinion and experiences of corruption worldwide[1], most recently in 107 countries in 2013.[2] The Barometer has been published eight times since 2003 by Transparency International.[3] The Barometer measures ordinary citizen’s actual experiences of corruption[4] as opposed to the Corruption Perception Index, which only measures perceptions of how corrupted certain countries are instead of actual cases of corruption.[5]Findings
In 2013, 53% of the respondents felt that corruption had increased in their country in the past two years, and only 18% said corruption had decreased in their country.[6] On average 27% of the respondents had had to pay a bribe to one of eight services mentioned (police, judiciary, registry, land, medical, education, tax, and utilities) within the last 12 months, which had not changed significantly from 2010/2011.[7] The most corrupt on this scale were police services, with 31% of respondents having paid bribes to them, and the least corrupt being utility services, with only 13% of respondents having paid bribes to them.[8] In 51 countries out of 107, the most corrupt institution from a list of 12 was political parties, whereas police forces ranked number one in only 36 countries.[9]Finland on the Barometer
In 2013 report, Finnish respondents thought that the level of corruption in Finland had remained the same in the past two years, and only 1% reported having paid a bribe within the last 12 months.[10] Nonetheless, it seems that when it comes to politics, Finns do not trust the country’s leaders’ integrity to the same extent as in other sectors, as 28% of Finnish respondents replied that they believe the government is to a large extent being run by only few big interest groups looking out for themselves. Finnish respondents also ranked political parties as the most corrupt institution in the country.[11] Perhaps due to the low level of corruption in Finland, Finnish respondents are reluctant to take any drastic measures to fight corruption, with signing a petition being the farthest most respondents would be willing to go.[12]Medical Services on the Barometer
Medical services are one of the eight services whose corruption is measured on the GCB, ranking well below average (27%) on the bribery scale, with only 17% of respondents reporting of paying bribes for medical services.[13] However, the report measures bribes paid by regular citizens, so it does not necessarily give an accurate image of corruption in business transactions within the pharmaceutical industry. The perceptions of corruption within medical and health care services were globally rated at 3.2 on a scale of 1-5, where five is extremely corrupt, and it ranked the 7th out of 12 institutions.[14]Critique
On a general level nationally-representative surveys of households is a great challenge in many developing countries. The Global Corruption Barometer has been criticized for inadequate sample sizes (only around 1000 respondents per country)[15] and for excluding many important countries, such as China.[16] However, Transparency International is working on increasing the number of countries surveyed and it has already grown to 107 in 2013 from the 47 countries that were polled in the first GCB in 2003.[17] Despite its shortfalls many see the GCB as a complementary alternative to the Corruption Perceptions Index.[18][1] Lee, S-H. (2010); Comparative Studies on Current Situations of Anti-Corruption and Human Rights in Southern Europe, East Asia and Latin America in Perspective of Soft Power. International Area Review, Volume 13, Number 4, Winter 2010
[2]http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013
[3]http://www.transparency.org/research/gcb/overview
[4]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[5]Andersson, S., & Heywood, P. M. (2009). The politics of perception: use and abuse of Transparency International's approach to measuring corruption. Political Studies, 57(4), p. 746-767
[6]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[7]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[8]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[9]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[10]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[11]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[12]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[13]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[14]Hardoon D. & Heinrich, F.(2013); Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Transparency International
[15] http://www.cgdev.org/blog/corrupting-perceptions-why-transparency-international%E2%80%99s-flagship-corruption-index-falls-short
[16] http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/07/10/china-absent-from-global-corruption-report/?mod=WSJBlog
[17] http://www.transparency.org/research/gcb/gcb_2003/0/
[18] See for example: Rohwer, A. (2009); Measuring Corruption: A Comparison between the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index And The World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators. CESifo DICE Report 3/2009. CESifo Group Munich.
or http://www.transparency.org/research/gcb/gcb_2003/0/